Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Livestock Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan on Friday said that reduction in agricultural support and protection by governments in the developed world is expected to benefit Pakistan's farmers through higher and more stable global commodity prices.
He was addressing the inaugural session of a two-day seminar on "Agriculture Negotiations, Challenges and Opportunities for Pakistan" organised by the Paris based International Trade Centre (ITC) here on Friday.
Speakers included Secretary Agriculture Punjab, Fayyaz Bashir, Head of Operations EC Delegation to Pakistan Michael Dale, Incharge Business Advisory Services Section ITC, Bruce Shepherd and Professor of Agricultural Economics, Pennsylvania State University Dr David Blandford.
The minister said that increase in global prices of agriculture commodities would help reduce rural poverty, and observed that Pakistan is conscious as part of the WTO negotiations, market access must also be improved in developing countries to accelerate the growing South-South trade. He said Pakistan stands ready to take advantage of the reduction in support and protection in other countries as the outcome of the Doha Round.
We have already made difficult internal adjustments on market access. Pakistan has lowered its applied tariffs on most agriculture and food products to the range of 0-25 percent, and is thus ready to benefit from the situation.
The minister said that Pakistan has worked to ensure that no WTO agreement will restrict Pakistan's participation in introducing new policies and programs for the agriculture sector.
A new agreement will not limit the introduction of any green or non-trade distorting programs for the agriculture and food sector in Pakistan He said that Pakistan's agriculture exports would benefit from improved market access as it is pursuing its interests without compromising on other pillars of negotiations.
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